E-Democracy builds online public space in the heart of real democracy and community. Our mission is to harness the power of online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy.

Final questions?

I working up my final question about the attributes of Neighbors
Online (just how wired, influential, etc. are they).
If anyone else has a question of Aaron before the Q and A closes
please fire away.
Cheers,
Steven Clift
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

Hi everyone,
My name is Matt Perry. I serve as the forum manager for both the
e-democracy.org Minneapolis Issues Forum and the Minnesota Politics &
Issues Forum. I'm also a commissioner on the City of Minneapolis'
community engagement commission.
This question might have already been asked and, in someways, answered,
but I'm always curious as to what degree online groups foster and/or
intersect with in person relationships and gatherings.
I have this hypothesis that people of like interests or places
ultimately have a desire to at least occasionally have shared "in
person" experiences. Perhaps this is a reflection of our "pack animal"
genes.
In other words, I think that online groups *foster* in person
connectedness and are a catalyst for doing so in a time frame that is
faster than non-wired relationship building can typically support.
Do folks think their groups have fosterd people coming together "in
person" and, if so, provided the means to do this more quickly than if
their members relied on non-electronic means for finding out about each
other?
Matt Perry
East Harriet Farmstead
e-democracy.org forum manager

I would say that the forums do not necessarily foster face to face
meetings, but they do make the first meetings much easier. A forum that
is very specific in its purpose (Campaign for Motorcycle Helmets) is
more likely to prompt a meeting than a more generally focused forum
(Citywide.)
Ed Davis
Help Desk and Special Projects

On 6/21/2010 1:53 PM, Matt Perry wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> My name is Matt Perry. I serve as the forum manager for both the
> e-democracy.org Minneapolis Issues Forum and the Minnesota Politics&
> Issues Forum. I'm also a commissioner on the City of Minneapolis'
> community engagement commission.
>
> This question might have already been asked and, in someways, answered,
> but I'm always curious as to what degree online groups foster and/or
> intersect with in person relationships and gatherings.
>
> I have this hypothesis that people of like interests or places
> ultimately have a desire to at least occasionally have shared "in
> person" experiences. Perhaps this is a reflection of our "pack animal"
> genes.
>
> In other words, I think that online groups *foster* in person
> connectedness and are a catalyst for doing so in a time frame that is
> faster than non-wired relationship building can typically support.
>
> Do folks think their groups have fosterd people coming together "in
> person" and, if so, provided the means to do this more quickly than if
> their members relied on non-electronic means for finding out about each
> other?
>
> Matt Perry
> East Harriet Farmstead
> e-democracy.org forum manager
>
> Steven Clift wrote:
>
>> I working up my final question about the attributes of Neighbors
>> Online (just how wired, influential, etc. are they).
>>
>> If anyone else has a question of Aaron before the Q and A closes
>> please fire away.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steven Clift
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> Matt Perry
> East Harriet Farmstead, Minneapolis
> Info about Matt Perry: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/4U0LZe6OT3dFlu3DaAjylX
>
> View all messages on this topic at:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/37iJgopQqwg8Fn1MMJXthv
> -----------------------------------------
> To post, e-mail: <email obscured>
> Use "Reply-to-All" via e-mail to post publicly.
> To leave or for daily digest, type "unsubscribe" or "digest on"
> in subject, then send to: <email obscured>
>
> More information about Locals Online - For hosts of neighborhood e-lists,
placeblogs, and community social nets:
> http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/locals
>
> E-Democracy.Org rules: http://e-democracy.org/rules
> -----------------------------------------
> Technical assistance thanks to our friends at http://OnlineGroups.Net
>
> Join Locals Online from:
> http://e-democracy.org/locals
> Also follow via Twitter, Facebook, and Web Feed
>

Hi Matt,
I think many people's sites will have different perspectives, but I've
always viewed my site as a complement to in-person interaction, not a
replacement and not a separate community. The principal objection from our
town officials to participation has been that they don't want to deal with
"anonymous" people, but in reality, most of the recurring contributors are
identifiable. Still probably 98% of the visitors are passive, but among
those who post comments and articles, I know who they are and they sometimes
know each other.
My whole point in starting the WestwoodBlog 3 years ago was to give myself a
way to be involved and connected to the town, despite the fact that I worked
in the city and did not have time to attend meetings at night. But then I
ended up getting involved in town anyway and now I have two meetings to
attend this week! Oh well. Good thing I'm unemployed right now :(
But my perspective from the beginning was that I did not want to create a
community of anonymous cyberdwellers with "handles" like "laughingboi57" or
whatever. I did want to preserve the opportunity for anonymous
participation, especially on controversial issues where, apparently, many
people are afraid to let their neighbors know what they think. (Except at
Town Meeting, of course!) But I view the blog as a way to encourage civic
engagement that ultimately is manifest at Town Meeting, on our Boards and
Commissions, in the schools and on the soccer fields. I tell people, "these
conversations are already happening...on the soccer field, so lets get them
out in the open on the blog." I believe the blog provides a way for people
to get involved, learn about what's going on, and then translate that into
real-life connections. I see the blog as a way for the non-Townie to get a
foot in the door and overcome the frustration and belief that they are being
excluded.
Dave Atkins
Content Developer, Analyst & Strategist
http://davewrites.comhttp://westwoodblog.org
781-929-5850
Contact Me [image: Linkedin] <http://linkedin.com/in/daveatkins>[image:
Facebook] <http://facebook.com/daveatkins>[image:
Twitter]<http://twitter.com/daveatkins>

I love seeing comments like those from Dave, Matt and Ed because your
on-the-ground experiences match up pretty perfectly with our broader research.
In all of our work on the general topic of civic engagement, people who take
part in the online debate around issues (whether those relate to politics,
local issues, government policies, etc) are much more likely than the rest of
the online population to also take part in offline activities as well. We can't
prove that one causes the other--just that there is a relationship between the
two--but it's clear that people who take time out of their lives to interact
with others online are invested in issues in a way that goes well beyond the
digital world.

I'd definitely like to hear more experiences about online leading to
greater connections in-person. What works?!
This definitely happens across our network - particularly at the
neighborhood level-, but we really don't know if it is a once a month
rare occurrence or something we could design to make happen more
often. I often contemplate what the "Do Something" button might look
like or what tools we might offer/recommend for small groups to take a
discussion from the forum, get into a small online group, meet in
person or facilitate some lighter time effort mix of MeetingWizard
with FreeConference to make telephone group calls easier to promote
AND then importantly report back to the full forum on their progress,
need for larger group input.
Offline Connected Examples:
1. Community garden group launched from online discussion - interest
discovered online, people met offline many many times and reported
back online from time to time - See our recent webinar for story:
http://e-democracy.org/webinars
2. Powderhorn Park - Response to violence - No forum is better at
sharing written notes on public/neighborhood meetings. In response to
recent shooting and gang violence, folks used the forum to promote a
number of in-person gathering including some "Talking Circles":
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/1ushRoG1XfIk3iQo3MhHJp
3. Event recruitment - The Experimental College group used our Cedar
Riverside forum to recruit new participants:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/40hpcLeboYobvykSRA8qF4
They even included a Somali version of their announcement. Someone
with their confirmed with me directly that a handful of new people
came based on the forum posting.
4. Regular gatherings - For the first six months of the rural Cass
Lake Leech Lake forum they had monthly get togethers to chat local
issues and celebrate the birthdays of the month. They even had their
own inaugural ball fostered by the forum:
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/189
This participant noted that because of the forum she was interacting
with more non-Native folks since moving to the reservation (this is a
major Native American area) over a decade ago:
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/509
5. Park Design Input - We used my neighborhood forum to encourage
people to attend a planning meeting on a new splash pad. When no one
reported the highlights, someone who went did and I tracked down the
presentation:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/hVgJbedNeTPfdIHM9Hj7d
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

Interesting. In the London digital neighbourhoods study (which is much
smaller scale, just three sites) we think we're finding something slightly
different (may be attributable to quite different participative culture in
the UK)
Respondents in the study areas report a high level of agreement (82%) that
people pull together to improve their neighbourhood: and 75% believe that
the local site had a positive effect on whether or not people pull together
to improve their neighbourhood. But only 13% of our respondents (all site
users) have been involved in formal decision-making groups or organisations
in the past year. We suspect that the local sites may be both stimulating
and reflecting a latent demand for informal opportunities for collective
involvement.
We're still chewing over the material we have but more here in due course -
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/projects/digitalneighbourho
ods.htm

Kevin
networkedneighbourhoods.com
______________
Kevin Harris
0773 042 9993
Local Level
www.Local-Level.org.uk
Neighbourhoods blog
neighbourhoods.typepad.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Smith <email obscured>]
Sent: 21 June 2010 21:51
To: <email obscured>
Subject: [Locals] Final questions?
I love seeing comments like those from Dave, Matt and Ed because your
on-the-ground experiences match up pretty perfectly with our broader
research. In all of our work on the general topic of civic engagement,
people who take part in the online debate around issues (whether those
relate to politics, local issues, government policies, etc) are much more
likely than the rest of the online population to also take part in offline
activities as well. We can't prove that one causes the other--just that
there is a relationship between the two--but it's clear that people who take
time out of their lives to interact with others online are invested in
issues in a way that goes well beyond the digital world.
--aws
Aaron Smith
Info about Aaron Smith:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/6BFzZslzkUB7flnos3BJDO
View all messages on this topic at:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/3GIfsgk9PBgvOG83ySyzox
-----------------------------------------
To post, e-mail: <email obscured>
Use "Reply-to-All" via e-mail to post publicly.
To leave or for daily digest, type "unsubscribe" or "digest on"
in subject, then send to: <email obscured>
More information about Locals Online - For hosts of neighborhood e-lists,
placeblogs, and community social nets:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/locals
E-Democracy.Org rules: http://e-democracy.org/rules
-----------------------------------------
Technical assistance thanks to our friends at http://OnlineGroups.Net
Join Locals Online from:
http://e-democracy.org/locals
Also follow via Twitter, Facebook, and Web Feed

I like your comment about latent demand for collective involvement.
I've used the phrase latent capacity to help our neighbors and meet public
challenges. With fewer and fewer people involved in formal groups and fewer
traditional groups with meetings, officers, dues etc. I've noticed a form of
"ad-hocracy" emerging from time to time.
We had a proposed beach clean-up on my neighborhood forum where the
self-nominated leader couldn't get a response from the Parks if this was OK,
and finally just said bring your tools we are just going to do this. I
imagined citizens being arrested for cleaning up the park. :-) Then a
neighbor who worked for the Parks, connected him via the forum to their
volunteer coordinator who he was not connected with earlier for whatever
reason before the clean-up.
With sites like Volunteer Match designed to help you get involved with
existing groups tackling identified social problems or civic goals, what can
we design to help people gather around new challenges and act quickly? We
aren't bowling alone, we are simply playing a new game that is just starting
to catch on.
Steven Clift
On Jun 22, 2010 6:42 AM, "Kevin" <email obscured>> wrote:
Interesting. In the London digital neighbourhoods study (which is much
smaller scale, just three sites) we think we're finding something slightly
different (may be attributable to quite different participative culture in
the UK)
Respondents in the study areas report a high level of agreement (82%) that
people pull together to improve their neighbourhood: and 75% believe that
the local site had a positive effect on whether or not people pull together
to improve their neighbourhood. But only 13% of our respondents (all site
users) have been involved in formal decision-making groups or organisations
in the past year. We suspect that the local sites may be both stimulating
and reflecting a latent demand for informal opportunities for collective
involvement.
We're still chewing over the material we have but more here in due course -
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/projects/digitalneighbourho
ods.htm